Five Papers in Australian Phonologies

3. THE PHONEME

There are 22 phonemes In Ngalkbun, of which 17 are consonants and
5 are vowels.

The consonants consist of six stops, five nasals, two laterals
and four semi -consonants. The active articulator for the apico-
alveolar and retrof lexed series is the tongue tfp but the I ami no-
palatal is articulated with the tongue blade.

Bi

lab

iai

Apico
Alveol

ar

Lam i no-
Palatal

Retro-
flex

Velar

Glottal

stop

P

t

1,

t

k

?

Nasal

m

n

nj

n

•

Latera 1

1

1

•

Semi-
Consonant

w

f

y

r

The distinctive features of the vowels are the back and non-back
positions with high, mid and low tongue height.

Non-back

Back

High

i

u

Mid

e

o

Low

a

WORK PAPERS OF SIL-AAB

Series A Volume 1

FIVE PAPERS IIM AUSTRALIAN PHaiMOLOGIES

EDITOR: JOYCE HUDSON

Summer Institute of Linguistics
Australian Aborigines Branch

Darwin
October 1977